CC -> UC Berkeley EECS -> spacecraft engineer AMA

[humble notch]

Hi everyone, I'm Bilbert (he/him/his). I'm currently an electrical engineer at an aerospace company, making RF chips for satellites.
Academics
I went to a California community college, then transferred to UC Berkeley as a junior in the EECS major in 2019. Graduated with a bachelor's in 2021. During the summer, I did internships at my current company.
Research
While I was a student at CC I joined a robotics lab at Berkeley and then spent a couple summers doing REUs on the East Coast. In my (too short!) time as a student at Berkeley, I joined another robotics lab and contributed to a few publications.
Hobbies
In my (also too short!) free time, I like to be outdoors hiking. If the weather doesn't cooperate, I'll be in my kitchen trying out a new recipe. When I'm not hungry (very rare!) I like to practice my piano. I'm also addicted to FB Marketplace.
Feel free to ask me about school, work, life, engineering or anything else!

[blazing schooner]

AMA with Bilbert from UC Berkeley

Have a question for Bilbert? Ask it using our “submit a question” button on this message! Make sure your questions follow server rules. You may also submit multiple times if you have multiple questions. While we cannot guarantee every question will be answered, Bilbert will pop in when he can to answer some that he feels he’s able to. We can’t wait to see what you have to ask!

[blazing schooner]

Aiden (0A, 2W, 12R)

ECCS has a very low acceptance rate even for transfers. While I’m not sure if it was higher when you applied, I was curious what you think you did that got you over the hump of a low transfer rate.

[humble notch]

The stats are public, so you can see the admit rate is about the same in 2023 as in 2019. You can see that most of the accepted kids have a 4.00 GPA. In terms of getting over the hump of "comprehensive review", I think I was able to write persuasive essays that demonstrated my goals in going to college and how I had worked toward them. I wrote about how I wanted to pursue a career in research and academia, and how I had spent a couple of summers in robotics labs so I knew I enjoyed the work. I also wrote an essay about leadership and teaching in esports.
I don't have any facts to go on for the admissions process, but I think it was a good move to write the PIQs about my most relevant experience. I remember the only other place to write about experience was just like "name" and "hours per week".
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/transfers-major

[blazing schooner]

a2cc ave (rejected, de anza)

Other than spmp, do you have any recommendations for cc resources for transfer to Cal?

[humble notch]

For Cal specifically, not really.
There are a few parts to a transfer application to UC: taking the right courses, getting good grades, writing PIQs, and extracurricular activities for your application.
I lived on assist.org to make sure I got all the classes right. I know CC courses can fill up quick, so you can use disability accommodations to get priority enrollment. My CC offered priority enrollment to notetakers; that is, you send your notes to someone who requested them through disability services. I even know a guy who took notes for a class he wasn't enrolled in.
My CC had writing workshops for PIQs; I think those were helpful to me.
There are programs to participate in paid summer research at many universities. For Berkeley, there is this: https://e3s-center.berkeley.edu/education-diversity/education/undergraduate/tte-transfer-excellence-summer-research-program/
NSF has plenty: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/reu/search

[blazing schooner]

a2pookie

fav memories at berkeley / fav classes you've taken / fav spots to check out in and around the area

[humble notch]

Wish I had more to go on lol. I only spent like 1.5 semesters on campus because of covid.
Fav memories: working late into the night with classmates on problem sets. Just sitting there figuring stuff out together, sharing what you know and listening to the parts you don't know, no other obligations pressing down on you. Loved that.
Fav classes: the southern border class was very interesting to me. The Prof was very passionate about the topic, so his lecture was something to look forward to each week. EE 120 was my favorite of the technical courses. Never realized there was so much to glean from a single pulse lol.
Fav spots: I remember going to the botanical garden once lol. Should have gone more. Same for shows at the Greek theater. Berkeley rose garden and the slide at cordornices park. Tilden, Sibley, Briones, Diablo are all great places for hiking.

[blazing schooner]

a2pookie

is cs61c + cs70 doable together ? if i throw in physics 7b would i have zero life ?

a2pookie

Making RF chips sounds awesome. I'm a high school senior and I'm also interested in the field of microelectronics. I wanted to ask if you had any recommendations for applying to universities and what exactly you ended up doing? Was it making the silicone-based RF chip itself or just integrating it into a design?

question by @thesoupmaster

[humble notch]

I took CS61C and Physics 7B at CC, so I can't tell you about the Berkeley classes. CS61C+CS70 is probably fine for a lot of people. I can say that it is true that if you take the top n% students in a state and put them in a class together, most of them will be around the average. And it is hard for students to go from straight A's to struggling for a B. So I think a student would have to evaluate their goals and whether they would be okay with not getting A's across all three courses if they took on that load.

[humble notch]

Recommendations for applying to universities: cheap and in-state is fine. Engineering is problem solving and debugging, so a more expensive university probably won't make you better at those skills.
My team works on chip design. I specifically work on the system performance simulation in MATLAB. Other engineers work on the actual RTL design. We send the design out for fabrication. We also work closely with teams designing adjacent chips (modem, FEM, antenna). I like this textbook, I'm sure you can find it somewhere online: CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective by Weste and Harris. 978-0321547743.

[blazing schooner]

a2pookie

How did you join a lab at Berkeley as a CC student? Are you local?

question by @aidenkt

tubba

Were you able to find internships while at a cc? If so, how did it go? Because most of these internship opportunities seem to require that you be enrolled at a 4 year

[humble notch]

I was lucky enough to live near Berkeley so I got into a lab by talking to a professor. Maybe I got lucky but I think it is just that simple. My project partner that summer was a math major who got let in because someone saw him standing outside the lab reading posters while waiting for his friend.
I don't think I've ever seen a CC student who did a big tech internship (FAANGMANSLUTS and such). Some developers at startups, but most of the opportunities that I've seen have been university research. NSF REU program linked above, department of energy, other university programs. They don't have to specify "community college," many of them are open to any students who are interested in research.
https://education.lbl.gov/internships/cci/
https://eso.stanford.edu/programs/community-college-students

[blazing schooner]

nolntent

Window shopping on Facebook marketplace is enjoyable so I can see why your addicted, other than that.

Is the CC to a University change drastic and also what stats did you have coming out of CC that got you into UC Berkeley

[humble notch]

Yeah, I think it was a drastic change in how teaching and learning were done. In CC the prof introduces the topic and then more or less shows you what you need to do on the exam. At Berkeley, the prof would go on a high-level theoretical overview of a topic, and then it was up to the student to attend office hours, read the textbook, talk to classmates, struggle with the problem, practice related problems, and then actually demonstrate knowledge on the exam.
See my reply to a2pookie for the difficulty difference.
Stats: see my reply to Aiden. GPA and essays really. Not much else goes into the application.
Also window shopping? No, I blow way too much money on the marketplace lol.

[blazing schooner]

bohaska

What made you decide to go to community college in the first place?

[humble notch]

Very poor performance in high school. I just wasn't in it. No passion for academic success. Not sure what changed about me when I went to CC, but suddenly I cared about getting those points on assignments. I also cared about learning. If not for CC, I don't think I'd have gotten anywhere.

[blazing schooner]

tay | purdue | genetics

Where do you like to hike? Was this something you were able to do during school, or did you feel like you had to put your hobbies on the back-burner a bit?

[humble notch]

Switzerland. Beautiful glaciers, mountains, lakes, trees. Washington is a close second. All the mountains and trees and lakes, but the ocean is within reach. Love Mt. Rainier. I think what pushes Switzerland to the top is the public transit. It's so much easier to reach hiking trails by bus/train/tram than in WA.
Thinking back on my application nowadays, it's a little sad how much stuff I dropped. The things I was so passionate about, and even wrote in my essays: esports, piano, running, hiking, painting, all got shoved to the side for the sake of grades. NGL, Berkeley courses were hard. After graduating, I found new pursuits. It's a different world entirely: confined work hours instead of homework and projects taking over your life. Income, but need to find new friends to do activities with. TBH I enjoyed my old hobbies more than my current ones. I hope to go back to them.

[blazing schooner]

a2pookie

How did you decide you want to study EECS?

question by @itsjoody

[humble notch]

I have been thinking about this question for the past 6 months. I don't remember. There was a lot of soul-searching, consultation with professors and students, scouring employment statistics and course requirements. Maybe I thought I could switch if I didn't like it.
Anyway, I'm here now and I would choose to study it again if I could.

[blazing schooner]

tubba

Were you always good at stem classes? Like I know you said you went to cc after poor academic performance in high school, but were you always good at STEM related subjects like math and problem solving? If not, how did you get that drive to like get back that passion and/or drive in regards to STEM subjects/classes?